Kim Jong-il died of heart attack

[Karl Valten]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16239693

Well now this is going to be interesting.

South Korean military is on stand-by, national security council is meeting, asian stock markets took a hit, and a lot of powers in that region are looking at what will come in the next few weeks.

Oof. This has been a busy year with Dictator's biting it.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Obligatory everyday Kim Jong-il is shuffling (...off the mortal coil) video post

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In all seriousness though, watching the footage of people getting hysterical over his death is so disturbing. are they genuinely upset or being forced to act that way?

[Xel-Naga]

The news report I watched said they thought the displays were staged. I cannot imagine the people of N. Korea would actually miss Kim Jong-il, a man who starved his country so he could feed his million man army.

Everyone is worried that with the aforementioned huge army that N. Korea will invade and take over S. Korea. I've heard people talk about it like they could do it on a whim. This is just one of those things we'll have to just watch it unfold. It all comes down to the successor and what he decides to do with his new dictatorship.

[Morgan Evanar]

Kinda hard to take over another country when you haven't fed anyone. I'm not especially worried about it.

[Rhone Banhammer]

Obligatory everyday Kim Jong-il is shuffling (...off the mortal coil) video post

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In all seriousness though, watching the footage of people getting hysterical over his death is so disturbing. are they genuinely upset or being forced to act that way?

Some of it is genuine and some staged. After the last changeover of power in 1994, people who showed little grief over the passing of KJI's dad were essentially punished. You can bet they won't make the same mistake twice. You also have a certain amount of "cult of personality" in existence there, so some people are probably genuinely distraught because the Jong-Il religion tells them they should be.


Kinda hard to take over another country when you haven't fed anyone. I'm not especially worried about it.

While this is true, the incoming dictator (Kim-Jong-Un, son of Jong-Il) has very little power consolidated among the military due to being involved in government affairs for so little time and there's not a major stabilizing presence in existence. Not having full support of your military is probably the greatest limiting factor in any potential invasion .

[Jedi Master Carr]

The news report I watched said they thought the displays were staged. I cannot imagine the people of N. Korea would actually miss Kim Jong-il, a man who starved his country so he could feed his million man army.

Everyone is worried that with the aforementioned huge army that N. Korea will invade and take over S. Korea. I've heard people talk about it like they could do it on a whim. This is just one of those things we'll have to just watch it unfold. It all comes down to the successor and what he decides to do with his new dictatorship.

While they could invade, they couldn't win in part because of the U.S. and the west. We would help South Korea, and China wouldn't get involved this time. They would be crazy to attempt an invasion.